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In mid-November, the Banco de la República forecasted inflation to end both 2018 and 2019 at 3.3%.

Banco de la República has now held the rate steady since cutting it by 25 basis points to 4.25% at its April meeting.

The decision to maintain the current rate was approved unanimously by all seven members of the board of the Banco de la República.

While this was just 0.01% below the rate recorded in March, this represents the fifth straight month of decline.

The central bank board cited the “weakness of the economic activity and uncertainty over its pace of recovery.”

After cutting the benchmark interest rate to 4.5% in January, the central bank board "considered the cycle of rate reductions had been completed," says Echavarría

The consumer price index (IPC) rose by just 0.24% from February to March, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 3.14%, down from 3.37% in February.

For the first time since last September, the inflation rate in Colombia landed within the central bank’s target range.

Food costs, which spiked by 7.22% in 2016, saw the lowest increase this year among major economic cateogories with just a small rise of 1.92% in 2017.

An increase over the past month in the recreation prices (up 0.68%) and housing prices (0.30%) helped to push up the overall consumer price index.